The election season is upon us. The Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary solemnly consecrated the opening of this long, sad circus. Until November we will endure the quadrennial ritual of seeing men of questionable ability and ethics accuse each other of having questionable ability and ethics. ...
The New Year literally blazed into Los Angeles with dozens of fires set over several days. One of the worst arson attacks ever, it sent Angelenos scurrying for their garden hoses. As conflagrations broke out under cars and spread to nearby structures, many Angelenos were terrified it was a ...
This year crawls toward its doom while 2012 waits to unleash new horrors upon us. Here in California, we enjoyed the first year of rule by our resuscitated governor, who has learned to his chagrin that the 1970s are indeed over—although his predecessor clung to life by unveiling a love child. ...
Here in the LA area, as in the rest of California and across the globe, the secular Christmas season (what we Western Christians call “Advent” and the Easterners name “Nativity Fast”) is in full swing. The Hollywood Christmas Parade duly took place, Las Posadas will soon start on Olvera ...
Hollywood would not be Hollywood without recurring scandals. Tinseltown always struggles to remain relevant, and in light of the Penn State affair, she has once again managed to keep up with mainstream American life. From Congress on down through schools, sports, Scouting, music, and of course the ...
The latest flap over a Benetton ad campaign is far from the first in that notoriously tasteless company’s history. Obama is shown kissing the President of China, French chief of State Nicolas Sarkozy liplocks with German Kanzlerin Angela Merkel, and the pope swaps spit with some imam (though ...
The recent news concerning the Irish government’s decision to close its embassy to the Holy See in Rome is yet another indicator of how petty and nasty the mental and moral midgets in Dublin’s Government Buildings really are. Spearheaded by Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, it is akin to ...
The civilized world greeted St. Hubert’s Day (patron saint of hunters) on November 3 with the usual masses and hound blessings that commence the annual hunting season. In the village of Saint-Hubert in the Belgian Ardennes, the Compagnons de Saint Hubert kept the feast with their usual pomp. ...
Here in California, Halloween is a season as much as a single holiday, beginning roughly in late August when the first magazines featuring holiday crafts appear, swiftly followed by drugstore and supermarket decorations. Yuletide trappings start to appear side-by-side with the Halloween things in a ...
The Andy Rooney era has ended. He gave his valedictory 60 Minutes appearance on October 2, 2011. When he began in the summer of 1978, I was preparing to enter college, Carter was president, and Johnny Carson was wildly popular. Now we are what we are, and Andy is 92. I was always ambivalent toward ...
